No, losing Matt Duchene for a month or so isn’t a good thing for the Burgundy and Blue’s playoff chances. But in a short-term situation, in a seven-game playoff series, possibly with home-ice, the Avs can withstand this and advance.

First, a history lesson: I was one of the first to proclaim the Avs were done like dinner after they lost Peter Forsberg to a ruptured spleen after the second round in 2001. No way the Avs could win a Cup without Foppa, I said. Judges? (Insert loud buzzer sound here).

The Avs just pulled up their socks, everybody just asked a little more from themselves and they got that Stanley Cup all right. (Of course, that Avs team also had Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, Adam Foote, Milan Hejduk, Chris Drury and Alex Tanguay, but I digress).

No, this Avs team isn’t as talented as that ’01 squad, and so the loss of Duchene hurts a little more in proportion probably. But here’s how they can still beat Chicago:
– Nathan MacKinnon now moves to center on a line with O’Reilly and McGinn. Assuming he plays like…Nathan MacKinnon…that’s a pretty darn good replacement at center.
– P.A. Parenteau will be back in time for the playoffs. He should take MacKinnon’s spot on a line with Stastny and Landeskog. I’ll take my chances with that line in a best-of-seven.
– John Mitchell has to up his game some at third-line center, and I think he can.
– Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Nick Holden might have to think a bit more offensively now, but they’re capable of producing more there.
– And for goodness sakes, Semyon Varlamov has to stand on his head.

OK, maybe he won’t have to be quite that good. This Chicago team has a few issues of its own right now too, with injuries to Kane and Toews and a distinctly Hangover-ish look about them these days. What, Varly can’t outplay Corey Crawford in a playoff series? I think he can.

Teams almost never overcome the loss of a star player in the long term. But in the short term, it can and often does happen. The Avs might even play better as a five-man unit defensively now that Duchene is out – something they haven’t been doing all that consistently of late and would need to in the playoffs, Duchene or no Duchene.